Friday, March 14, 2014

Learning Persevering & Discipline in Grade Four


It is once again report card season and while I started earlier than most of my colleagues (and finished in time to use our "Report Card Writing PD Day" to plan and prep lessons), it is still a very busy time in the year with under four months to go until summer holidays.

The biggest project we have on the go right now is on a famous Canadian who has shown the characteristics of Perseverance and Discipline.

Each of my students drew a name out of a hat and we discussed each of their famous Canadians.  I gave them some background on their Canadian so they went into researching their person knowing what to expect.

There was a long range: Terry Fox, Mario Lemieux, Maurice Richard, Rick Hansen, Alexander Graham Bell, Chris Hadfield, Roberta Bondar, Dr. Frederick Banting, Shania Twain, Timothy Eaton, Wayne Gretzky, and Dr. David Suzuki to name a few.

Of course, everyone's first thought when I introduced this research project was Terry Fox and rightly so.  We already ran the annual Terry Fox Run back in September and watch the ESPN documentary "Into the Wind" as I do every year with my kids.  I know I always get extremely emotional watching it every year so I'm hoping the kids really take to heart how important it is to have perseverance and discipline to get somewhere in life.

Some of their Canadians they have to research maybe had things come a little easier than others, but the entire project is focused on how if you work hard and are determined, you can do great things.

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